Visual Griots of Mali – Student Gallery is a wonderful collection of photos by young Malian photographers. The young people were trained to use the cameras and then sent out to record their lives. The photo exhibit of 49 black and white photos opens at the Smithsonian. The students have taken the idea of a griot (who is a West African poet, praise singer, and wandering musician, and considered a repository of oral tradition), and have metamorphosed the idea into visual media. The use of black and white adds a different dimension to the photos. I also liked the way they have ‘caught’ people in the photos. Like the photo below the picture gallery shows everyday life. The scene below could be seen in many rural villages. Small radios are very popular and the sleeping mat is locally produced.
I actually saw this exhibit a few weeks ago at the Smithsonian. It was pretty awesome. All the pictures that were there just made me feel like I was actually in the village and seeing their daily lives. I talked to the guy who created it, Shawn Davis of the Academy for Educational Development, and he told us that he basically just enjoyed photography and how it flows right into the story-telling culture in Mali as well as other parts of Africa. In a few months the exhibit will be traveling to the University of Michigan and then to other galleries around the country. If anyone has a chance to see it and learn about this culture, I would highly recommend it.